Dump truck driver crushed by debris after hitting tree

The driver of a dump truck died Monday after crashing into a tree in Parkland and being crushed by construction debris that slid forward from the bed of his truck.

Pierce County sheriff’s investigators don’t know what caused Saina Saina, 40, to drive off the road as he traveled west in the 1900 block of 112th Street South.

The accident occurred about 4:10 p.m.

Saina, from Tacoma, was driving a 26,000-pound truck when he crossed the eastbound lanes and drove down an embankment. The truck plowed through a chain-link fence before striking a tree.

“What would most likely have been a minor accident became a fatality when the construction debris in the bed shifted forward when the truck hit the tree, crushing the driver ...,” sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said.

Jake Jeffers of Tacoma was driving behind Saina at the time of the accident. He said he immediately pulled over, turned on his emergency blinkers and called 911 while trying to get to the vehicle. Jeffers said he attempted to help the man but Saina died minutes after the accident before emergency responders arrived on the scene.